Photographing Mr Baker’s Cafeteria

The first official hint that a cafe was in Mr Baker’s Bakeshop pipeline was this ad in Borneo Insider’s Guide magazine featuring pictures from my first shoot at the bakery, a day which coincided with the delivery of a 15-inch fresh vanilla fruit cake to Wu Chun. Months later, in the weeks leading up to the cafe’s opening, the much anticipated shoot took place at the spacious location at Gadong Central — arrived on location to set up at 8am and finished packing up at 7pm — 11 hours of styling and shooting I kid you not and I got to sample their freshly prepared sandwiches and beverages.

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Equally busy during the shoot is cafe owner Eric who kept his social followers updated on Facebook and Instagram.

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My choice of available light for food photography — a pair of 60-inch umbrellas made by Photogenic USA with shots tethered to a Dell Studio 17″ laptop for instant, critical feedback.

It’s impossible to undertake a commercial assignment and not have on hand a large high definition
display for critical review of shots. My Dell Studio 17 goes with me everywhere.

The Cafe’s selection of Italian style grilled sandwiches called Paninis. I sampled these and loved the crunchy exterior and warm insides.Freshly baked healthy variety of take-out breads now a convenient access in Gadong Central while you dine-in.

A clean, modern, rustic cafe interior designed by WaMa Designs

Photographs from this shoot are to fill the white vertical spaces to the right of this photo.This photo was lit by 3 flashes, one firing into a 60-inch umbrella, another a 32-inch umbrella hidden in the far end corner to provide balanced lighting from front to back including a third flash to light up the kitchen.On the day I delivered the recently photographed images of the new Cafe, local Bruneian staff were given hands-on training in food and beverage preparation to equip them for the official opening. At time of this post, MrBaker’s Bakeshop employs 70% local Bruneian staff.